Unlocking, Rooting, and Installing Apps on the Nexus Q

The biggest question mark to come out of Google I/O is the Nexus Q. Trying to describe it to someone is an exercise in awkwardness at the very least. Google desicribes it as a “social streaming media player,” and once you see it working, it kind of makes sense. At $299 a pop, however, you have to wonder if this is more of a solution looking for a problem.

Personally, I like the concept, and once I update my router I should be able to give this thing a full review (seems like the Q is having issues with some routers and as luck would have it, mine is one of them). In any case, the idea is that anyone with an Android device, the Q app, and Play Store music or video content can easily add that content to the Q’s queue during a party, for example, and everyone gets to play DJ. That’s the social part. In its most basic form, it serves as simply a way to stream your Google Play content through your entertainment system, using your phone or tablet as a remote.

The important thing to realize, though, is that this is a Nexus device, meaning it is made for easy hacking, and to that end, some dev folks over at XDA Forums have put together a little guide on how to unlock, root, install and run apps on the Q itself, which requires pushing commands to it through a computer connected to the USB port since the Q has no real graphical user interface.

The hope is that devs will help expand the capabilities of the Q once new apps or ROMs can be cooked up. So there just might be an audience for this thing yet.

Originally from the East Coast, Ed now makes his home in San Jose, California. His passion for technology started with his first ColecoVision and Atari gaming systems, and has grown stronger through Tandy computers, IBM clones, Palm Pilots, and PocketPCs. Ed's love for Android began with his first HTC Hero, then blossomed with the original Evo 4G, and now the Evo 3D and Motorola Xoom. He graduated from Syracuse University with a B.S. in Communications, and is now a professional User Experience Designer working in Silicon Valley. In his spare time, Ed enjoys video games, jamming on guitar, and spending time with his wife, two cats, and Logitech Revue.